115px|The detonation of Arizona<span
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(artillery)|magazines
USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship built for the United
States Navy in the mid-1910s. Commissioned in 1916, the ship remained
stateside during World War I. In 1919 the vessel represented American
interests in the Mediterranean during the Greco-Turkish War. Several
years later, she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet and was assigned
to it for the rest of her career. Arizona spent most of her time
between the wars training, including participation in the annual Fleet
Problems, and aided survivors of 1933 Long Beach earthquake. In 1940,
she joined the Pacific Fleet in its new base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to
deter the Japanese Empire. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
on 7 December 1941, Arizona was bombed, exploded and sank, killing
1,177 officers and crewmen. The next day, the United States declared
war on Japan. Unlike many of the other ships sunk or damaged that day,
Arizona was not repaired. Her wreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl
Harbor, and is the final resting place for the remains of most of those
who died. They are commemorated by the USS Arizona Memorial which
straddles her hull. (more...)
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Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Arizona_%28BB-39%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
43 BC:
Cicero, widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose
stylists, was assassinated.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero>
1724:
In Toruń, Royal Prussia, Polish authorities executed the city's mayor
and nine other Lutheran officials following tensions between
Protestants and Catholics.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumult_of_Thorn_%28Toru%C5%84%29>
1815:
Michel Ney, Marshal of France, was executed by a firing squad near
Paris' Jardin du Luxembourg for supporting Napoleon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Ney>
1972:
The crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft took the photograph "The Blue
Marble" , the first clear image of an illuminated face of Earth, on
their way to the Moon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble>
2007:
A crane barge that had broken free from a tugboat crashed into an oil
tanker near Daesan, South Korea, causing the country's worst-ever oil
spill.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_South_Korea_oil_spill>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
tip one's hand (v):
(idiomatic) To inadvertently reveal any secret, particularly a secret
that puts one at an advantage or disadvantage
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tip_one%27s_hand>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
That which is not just, is not Law; and that which is not Law, ought
not to be obeyed.
--Algernon Sydney
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Algernon_Sydney>
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